Prognostications for 2015 will be coming along shortly, so to prepare for that I’m taking a brief moment to reflect on the last 340ish days – well just the Event highlights!
I attended my first Dscoop and successfully executed “Occupy Scodix” establishing an unauthorized home base for my PMC operations in their booth – literally. I spent much of the conference mesmerized by their finishing technology, and getting a deeper look into the immense world of HP – especially High Speed Inkjet, their partners, and all of their offerings. The education was top notch, creative, and pitch free. If you can go (there is criteria) then don’t think, GO, and I will see you at Dscoop X in DC!
I made my annual pilgrimage to Xplor International’s Xploration Customer Communications Conference where I presented a session on social media marketing, sat on a panel about augmented reality, and once again was SCHOOLED til my brain exploded by some of the smartest industry people out there. For their 2015 event I was invited to produce a pre-conference, so I wrangled Avanti and Trish Witkowski to join me, and we are going to deliver Rescue Your ROI: Online Strategies for Offline Success on April 13, 2015 in Orlando, FL. Stay tuned for much more on this!
In a fun parallel universe moment, Chris Price from GASC/GRAPH EXPO invited me to help him host the Inkjet Theater at ISA’s Sign Expo. Seeing “the man of McCormick” working a booth was really a peek behind the curtain to how it should be done. Ok fine, he did have a walkie-talkie to reach show management, there are some perks to being Chris after all, but each morning he rolled up his sleeves and came to work. We created some well-received programming throughout the show, I moderated a panel on the future of inkjet, presented a session on social media marketing, and learned much from the other presenters. I’m available again to help Chris… just saying!
The Printerverse at GRAPH EXPO 14, a show floor feature, was a hit and despite the travel issues our booth was pretty packed for our sessions and events. The Intergalactic Alliance of The Printerverse brought their A-game and provided stellar information and thought leadership throughout the show. Mary Beth Smith’s annual National Girls Who Print Day celebration was bigger than ever, and Pat McGrew won the first ever Girlie Award! GRAPH EXPO first-timers Sandy Hubbard and Brian Rothschild made great additions to the Printerverse team consisting of veterans Nick Ames and Lady Scanalot (my mom!). Most impressive were the amazing contributions, comments and questions coming from our at home audience watching live on Livestream. For four days our community consistently made the case for social media being a relevant communication and engagement tool for our industry, and proved their influential status – BIG thanks for that! We’ll be back for GRAPH EXPO 2015 and I can’t wait!
Last but not least, the planning and promoting of International Print Day, 24-hours of global print and integrated marketing knowledge sharing through social media, paid off to the tune of 23 MILLION+ Twitter timeline deliveries reached with print love! For me, no day in 2014 was as nerve-wracking and rewarding. Kicking off in Australia and ending in the West Coast of the U.S., our community came together on October 8th and made history by contributing to a global social media based print event! There are too many people to thank, and if you missed it mark your calendars now for #IPD15 – October 14, 2015.
I know I am very lucky to be able to attend any events, and even with that said I hope I am able to attend and participate in more in 2015! I am going to continue to populate PMC’s Events listings with as many as I can find over the holidays, and I encourage you to add yours – including webinars and gatherings – at no cost on the site! Check there, check often, and do your best to get to at least one event next year.
A big thanks to all of the event producers, companies and industry organizations out there that spend their time and energy doing this for us! I will use this last sentence to remind you all that I LOVE attending events and participating in sessions – call me!
One Response
What a great recap! It’s been a pleasure working with you and the PrintMediaCentr team, the Printerverse team, the IPD team, and everything in between. Here’s to a phenomenal 2015!